Financial Stewardship

The Ministry of Mindful Stewardship

Jesus taught more about the use of money than any other subject. Many of us are working toward making our checkbooks be a reflections of our faith. We ask questions like, 'Where does most of my financial energy go?' 'How does my work reflect my faith?' 'How do I use my finances to give back to God the many blessings I've been given?'

People who are active at Grace Church are asked to make a financial pledge toward the ministries of the parish each fall for the coming year. We hope that people will strive toward pledging our standard "share," which is $50 per week. Obviously, some people cannot swing that much, while others may be able to gratefully give 3, 5 or even more shares. What does a really good pledge look like? The standard idea of a tithe, or tenth, of your income given to support God's mission, whether through the church or another agency, is one way to gauge this question. Now more than ever in our consumerist culture, we know that our relationship with money and material possessions makes a big impact on our faith. A faithful pledge is one important way to work toward living into the counter-cultural way of Jesus.

If you have not made a pledge this year and would like to, you don't have to wait until this fall! Contact Jonathan and ask for a pledge card. Your new pledge, given for the remainder of this year, will be celebrated!

Our church takes our communal financial management very seriously and we strive to be mindful in our financial practices. The Finance Team has a number of tasks - they oversee our church financial systems and support the treasurer, they assign a team to conduct our yearly stewardship campaign, they consider the wise investment and use of our small savings account, they insure that our yearly audit and parochial reports are filed, they organize special fundraising efforts and each fall they receive the priorities of the Vestry to translate them into a working budget. If you 'speak money' and are comfortable working with and developing finances, we'd love your participation on the finance team. Please contact our treasurer, Christine.